Latest news – Page 652
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News
Society adds voice to India rape trial concerns
The Law Society has called on the Indian authorities to protect the lawyers who will represent five men charged with the rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi in December. Local lawyers have refused to represent the suspects. ...
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We’re still on course for referral fee ban, says SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not ask for a delay to the imminent ban on referral fees, despite warnings that the timetable is being rushed. The SRA board will meet on 23 January to finalise the SRA Handbook’s wording on the ban, which comes into force for personal injury claims ...
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Birmingham Law Centre faces the axe after a century
Britain’s second biggest city could be without a law centre by the end of this month unless funding can be found to keep it afloat. Birmingham Law Centre is descended from bodies that have offered free legal advice and representation for nearly 100 years. ...
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Regulator approves bar’s client money scheme
The Financial Services Authority has given the go-ahead for the bar’s scheme that will allow barristers to hold client money through a third party, enabling clients to bypass solicitors and instruct barristers directly more widely. The FSA has granted regulatory approval under the Payment Services Regulations ...
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Law firms defy City gloom with 20,000 new hires
Employment at City law firms has grown by 20,000 in the space of a year, according to a new report. The annual health check on the UK’s financial and professional services industry by City cheerleader TheCityUK reveals that 339,700 people are now employed in legal services, ...
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High street PI giant announces redundancies
A personal injury firm claiming to have the biggest high street presence in the UK has announced up to 13 redundancies. Forster Dean began consultation with the affected staff members, including 10 solicitors, this week as a direct response to the government’s civil justice reforms. ...
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City and in-house summit calls for gender targets
Gender targets and embedding flexible working practices in corporate culture are among recommendations by over 130 senior City partners and in-house counsel to increase the number of women partners. The proposals, outlined in a report published today, follow an international summit attended by delegates from top ...
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2012 ‘record year for mergers’
More than a quarter of top-100 firms were involved in a merger in 2012, in what has been described as a record year for deals. Research by Jomati Consultants has found that 26 deals were announced by top-100 firms during the past 12 months. ...
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Plea over fixed costs for mesothelioma cases
Asbestos campaigners have warned the government it would be a mistake to introduce blanket fixed costs for all mesothelioma cases. Justice minister Helen Grant confirmed last month that a consultation will start in the spring on reform of mesothelioma cases. Proposals will ...
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Council defers defamation move
A local authority has decided to defer acting on lawyers’ advice that recent changes in policy allow it to sue critics for defamation. Rutland county council said today that following a council meeting last night ‘the option of taking legal action for defamation is not being pursued at this time’. ...
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Judiciary publishes guide for litigants in person
The judicial office has today published a self-help guide for litigants in person presenting cases to the interim applications court. The 16-page guide, penned by High Court judge Mr Justice Foskett, takes litigants through each stage of the process, from giving notice and presenting documents to ...
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QASA start delayed
The introduction of the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) has been delayed. The Joint Advocacy Group (JAG), made up of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Ilex Professional Standards (IPS) issued a statement today following consideration of the responses ...
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AWS to join Law Society’s Women Lawyers Division
The Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) has voted to join the Law Society’s new Women Lawyers Division (WLD) in order to give women solicitors a ‘stronger, louder and unified voice’, it emerged this week. The vote, held on Monday evening at Chancery Lane, followed two years ...
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Interpreter contract failings revealed
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has exposed the full failings of the Ministry of Justice’s contract for court interpreters, branding it ‘an object lesson in how not to contract out a public service’. A report published today details the flaws in the procurement process and operation ...
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Innovators not worried by negligence threat to cancer care
It has been mooted that ‘current law is a barrier to progress in curing cancer’. I disagree. Lord Saatchi feels that ‘fear of litigation for medical negligence is a deterrent to innovation in cancer treatment’.
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Don’t slash personal injury jobs
The Law Society Research Unit informs me that 14% of all solicitors practising in England and Wales undertake personal injury work. In the north-west, it rises to 34% and in Merseyside to 40%. The unanimous view of Ministry of Justice proposals to slash fees for dealing with injury claims is ...
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The long and short of it
Unusually, there have been two pronouncements on judgment writing from high judicial officers in the UK recently (news, 23 November). The long and short of it is a win for the sensible call that judgments need to be clearer and shorter, but that there is also room for improvement by ...
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Clearing up judgments
With regard to your Gazette item on calls for judges to make their judgments more readable, I would suggest that judges go back to read the judgments of the late Lord Denning MR; they are models of conciseness and are also entertaining in a serious way. He used short sentences ...
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The case for the defence
The government has decided, no doubt in an attempt to cut payments from central funds to defendants who are not eligible for legal aid, to reduce the amount of payments from central funds to no more than the legal aid rates. All well and good if this was truly fair. ...
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Doing your duty
I do not believe that we have dealt justice to Peter Elliott after his experience at Manchester’s High Court. He was not asking for, or expecting, legal advice in connection with his case.